Lifeguards Rescue Six People

3 August 2011, 06:47 | Updated: 3 August 2011, 06:52

Lifeguards working on the Norfolk coast have had to rescue six people in just two days, after they were caught out by rip tides.

On Tuesday morning lifeguard Ben Robson, aged 19, based at Sea Palling, rescued three people that had swum out to the sea defences 50 metres from the shore. They were trapped on the rocks unable to make it safely back to shore because of the strong currents.

They were spotted by members of the public who called out for the lifeguards. One of them was being stabilised by a member of the public on a surfboard. So Ben, on shoreline duty at the time, had to travel half a mile on the quad bike to reach them. He then grabbed his rescue tube and swam out to them and clipped the weakest of the three into his rescue tube, returning him immediately to the shore. He then swam out again to the other two and brought them both back using the surfboard. One of the casualties had to be treated by paramedics for water inhalation.

Meanwhile on Monday his younger brother Luke Robson, aged 16, on duty at Cromer, also went out to rescue three people trapped in a rip current. He had noticed a woman struggling approximately 200 metres west of the lifeguard hut at Cromer. So he grabbed the paddle board and went to her assistance.

On arrival, the lady was clinging onto the wooden groyne and two other swimmers that had gone to help her also needed rescuing.

Stuart Thompson, RNLI Lifeguard Manager, said: ‘Rip currents are extremely dangerous. Swimmers can very easily get carried out further than they expected due to the unpredictable nature of the tides.

‘All the swimmers had swum away from the lifeguarded area and ended up in a dangerous area around a groyne, where there can be lots of currents.

‘There is plenty of signage in both areas advising people not to climb on the rocks.’

Luke is in his first season as an RNLI lifeguard and is training to be a tractor engineer, while Ben has been a lifeguard since 2008.